The Virginia Film Office has announced the three winners of the seventeenth Virginia Screenwriting Competition. The winners and their screenplays are: Michele Poulos (Richmond) “Mule Bone Blues”; Ryan Farr (Charlottesville) “Home Videos;” and David Williamson (Virginia Beach) “Colby.”
The Virginia Screenwriting Competition was created by the Virginia Film Office to celebrate the accomplishments of Virginia writers, as well as to promote the future of filmmaking in Virginia. It provides screenwriters with a forum for their work and an opportunity to present their scripts to decision-makers in the film industry. Each writer submits a full-length screenplay to be evaluated by a panel of Virginia judges. Final scripts from the first round of judging are then sent to a second panel comprised of professionals active in the film or television industry. The winners were presented with their awards during the 2010 Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville.
Finalists in the competition were Durrell Nelson and Rebecca Rogers Nelson (Crozet) “The Home Game;” Jill Stevens (Leesburg) “Moving On;” Michelle Kelly (Charlottesville) “Idiots at Heart;” Matthew Giordano (Midlothian) “The Devil’s Beating His Wife;” Steve Shockley (South Riding) “Discounted Retail;” Carl Garrett (Charlottesville) “Bloodlands;” and Craig Nogosek (Norfolk) “The Robberies and Murders of the Notorious Pirate Captain Black Bart Roberts.”
The Virginia Screenwriting Competition is held annually and is open to Virginia residents. The majority of the script must take place in Virginia or at locations which could reasonably be found in Virginia. For further information on the competition, contact the Virginia Film Office at (800) 854-6233 or visit the website at www.film.virginia.org.
Winning Screenwriter Comments
Michele Poulos: “It’s a great honor to have won such an exciting competition among skilled writers, and along with all of the entrants and the other winners, I’m grateful to the Virginia Film Office for their work in promoting a greater awareness of promising screenplays. I’m so pleased to have interacted with the tremendous group of people at the VFO — I can’t imagine a more friendly and supportive team. Thank you VFO!”
David Williamson: “I am truly grateful that the competition gave me and other writers the opportunity to have our work heard and received. Many thanks for the time and work put into growing the arts in Virginia. I’m honored to have received the award and to have entered into the fellowship of the local screenwriters and artists of our lovely Commonwealth.”
WINNERS
Michele Poulos
“Mule Bone Blues”
The story of how conflicting attractions, disputed authorship, and the pressure of white patronage destryoyed the relationship and collaboration between Zora Neale Hurston and the best-known poet of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes.
Ryan Farr
“Home Videos”
Avant guard painter Nathanial Osterbind lands a job painting an eighteen mural series at his son’s elementary school. When funds for the project are reallocated before the project is finished, Nathanial decides to create a home video that will bring him back to the limelight.
David Williamson
“Colby”
After being home schooled by his religiously conservative parents his entire life, Colby is finally allowed to attend a public high school. He quickly befriends the misfit and school freak Jeanette and enlists her aid in preventing what may be an act of large scale school violence.
FINALISTS
Durrell Nelson &
Rebecca Rogers Nelson
“The Home Game”
Cocky and reckless pro baseball player Jake Mcalister has faith in nothing until he’s forced to coach a rag tag group of foster boys into a winning little league baseball team.
Jill Stevens
“Moving On”
After escaping a marriage to a domineering husband, Nellie searches for a new life with her three boys as a docent for a haunted plantation in Loudoun County.
Michelle Kelly
“Idiots at Heart”
A romantic comedy about a spurned wife who jokes about sleeping with her husband’s lover’s husband. And then does it.
Matthew Giordano
“The Devil’s Beating His Wife”
A young comic book artist confronts her frivolous and hedonistic lifestyle after a tumultuous relationship with a blind retired filmmaker.
Steve Shockley
“Discounted Retail”
After high school graduation, Michael gets a summer job at a downtrodden discount store, K-Shop. He wants to have a girlfriend before college begins and, as he tries to choose between the two girls in his life, he also actively tries to get fired from the job he hates by saying and doing whatever he wants to customers, managers, and coworkers.
Carl Garrett
“Bloodlands”
Angela Hansen is a battle hardened beauty at war with a plague of blood craving Revenants.
Craig Nogosek
“The Robberies and Murders of the Notorious Pirate Captain Black Bart Roberts”
The story of one of the most notorious pirate captains and the largest legal trial against pirates.